Winning the Academy Award is every actor’s dream. They find the perfect role, work with the right director, and after a lot of emotional gymnastics, their name gets called and they tearfully take to the stage to accept their golden Oscar. When it comes to what it takes to win, however, does the criteria differ for Best Actor and Best Actress? We’re used to watching reels of male Oscar nominees and winners deliver rousing monologues or getting tough with other people – but what about the women? It seems we’re accustomed to watching female Oscar nominees and winners cry their hearts out (looking at you, Queen Viola). Do women have to cry to win a Best Actress Oscar? We investigated…

Over the past 50 years, 96% of the women who have been awarded the Oscar for Best Actress have cried in their performances (see our chart below). In the same 50 years, only about 60% of men who took home the Academy Award for Best Actor had roles that required them to cry. There are a plethora of ways to interpret this data – Hollywood is used to seeing women in positions of vulnerability, women are very rarely rewarded for playing stoic characters or authority figures, you name it. There’s also the fact that notions of masculinity have changed drastically in recent years; watching men cry and play roles that allow to put a sensitive side on display has only recently become socially acceptable (and celebrated). There seems to be an entire checklist for winning one of these roles; crying, undergoing a physical transformation, wearing age make-up or prosthetics, or just looking plain ugly. The requirements go on and on, but crying seems to be the consistent.

Over the past 50 years, 96% of the women who have been awarded the Oscar for Best Actress have cried in their performances, while only 60% of men who took home the Academy Award for Best Actor had roles that required them to cry.

So what does it all mean? Women have shed a lot more salt water in the process of winning their Oscars. Every weepy scene isn’t the same, however; some winners have only welled up for the award (see Helen Mirren in The Queen), while others have unabashedly ugly cried (crazy Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine). The non-criers – mainly Frances McDormand in Fargoand Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest– were in positions of high authority, which should certainly be taken into account here. Some of the biggest criers – Brie Larson, Halle Berry, and Meryl Streep among them – all won for their portrayals of distressed mothers. There are many ways of wailing among our Oscar winners, and we’ve compiled a range of just how many trophy tears it takes to be declared the victor (unless you’re a notable non-crier, like McDormand in Fargo). Here are just a few of our favorites.

Big-Time Blubberers

The Role: Joy Newsome, simply known to her 5-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) as ‘Ma’, is a young woman who has been held captive in a garden shed they call “Room” for the last seven years. After they are able to escape and reunite with Joy’s family, the next struggle begins: adjusting to life in the real world.
The Tears: Larson cries multiple times over the course of the film’s 118 minutes; most moments have to do with protecting Jack or the depression and isolation she experiences while in Room – outside of it. The biggest blubber in the film occurs when she is reunited with Jack after sending him out on his own (and not knowing if he’ll make it back alive) as part of their escape plan.
The Competition: Other nominees included Charlotte Rampling for her work in 45 Years, Cate Blanchett in Carol, Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn, and Jennifer Lawrence in Joy. All of these ladies also cried in their respective roles.

The Role: Berry plays Leticia, the widow of a recently executed murderer. She begins an affair with Hank, a prison guard working on death row (Billy Bob Thornton) after a chance encounter one night when her son is struck and killed by a car.
The Tears: After she’s shut out of the operating room at the hospital where her son has just died, Berry completely breaks down, sobbing and screaming for her baby as she collapses onto the floor.
The Competition: Berry was up against Renée Zellweger’s quirky portrayal of Bridget Jones, Sissy Spacek’s work in In The Bedroom, Judi Dench in Iris, and Nicole Kidman’s musical turn in Moulin Rouge!. Another year, another category full of criers.

The Role: Sophie, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, is haunted by the ghosts of what she’s experienced when she begins an affair with a troubled young writer named Nathan (Kevin Kline in his feature film debut).
The Tears: After Sophie is forced to make the decision between which of her children to send to their death and which to save, she completely loses it while her daughter is dragged away from her.
The Competition: The rest of the Best Actress category in 1983 consisted of Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria(the only non-crier in the mix), Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman, Jessica Lange in Frances, and Sissy Spacek in Missing.

Crazy Criers

The Role: Annie Wilkens, the biggest fan of author Paul Sheldon (James Caan), happens to stumble upon the unconscious Sheldon after his car veers off the road during a blizzard. What initially seems like good intentions on her behalf inevitably prove to show there’s a much more sinister side to her.
The Tears: After finishing Paul’s latest book and discovering that he’s killed off the title character (Misery), she flies into a manic, tearful rage and nearly bludgeons Paul with a plant stand.
The Competition: The 1991 category included Anjelica Huston in The Grifters, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge, and Joanne Woodward in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.

The Role: Cotillard stars as famed French singer Edith Piaf in this biopic that tells the story of her life from the time she was a little girl in nonlinear fashion.
The Tears: Cotillard dissolves into complete hysteria after she discovers that the man she loves, Marcel, has been killed in a plane crash.
The Competition: The competition in the 2007 category included a range of roles; Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Julie Christie in Away from Her, Laura Linney in The Savages, and Ellen Page in Juno(all criers, but none as severe as Cotillard).

Single-Tear Stoics

The Role: Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth II in this film that depicts how the Royal Family handled the death of Princess Diana of Wales.
The Tears: The Queen worries for her young grandsons after Diana’s death, and continually deals with being called heartless by the British people for her lack of response to this tragedy. She tears up at the stress of the whole ordeal, and later tears up again after visiting with citizens who are in mourning outside Buckingham Palace and seeing the display of flowers and gifts laid out in honor of Diana.
The Competition: Penelope Cruz in Volver, Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal, Kate Winslet in Little Children, and Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada were the contenders in this 2006 race. A fascinatingly varied category, not all of these performers cried, and most were not sympathetic figures (particularly Streep and Dench).

The Role: Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a young FBI cadet who is recruited to interview famed serial killer Hannibal Lecter(Anthony Hopkins) in order to help catch another killer currently on the loose.
The Tears: A real fit of tears comes after her first visit to the Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane, but the most intense of her crying moments comes when she wells up while she describes to Hannibal how she ran away from home after hearing lambs set to be slaughtered screaming.
The Competition: Foster went up against Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in Thelma & Louise, Laura Dern in Rambling Rose, and Bette Midler in For the Boys. Another class of criers, here, but also an impressively feminist character category.

The Role: Streep portrayshistorical figure Margaret Thatcher, the longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century.
The Tears: Hardly any, until Thatcher is escorted away from 10 Downing Street and her eyes well up with tears as everyone bids her farewell.The Competition: Streep shared the category with Glenn Close for her performance in Albert Nobbs, Viola Davis in The Help, Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn– tears abound in 2011.

Notable Non-Criers

The Role: Near-legendary villain Nurse Ratched runs her mental institution with an iron fist – and passive aggressive methods intended to keep her patients in line.
The Tears: The closest Fletcher comes to shedding tears is after McMurphy attempts to strangle her and she attempts to catch her breath. For the majority of the film, however, she maintains a consistent, steely malice that makes her absolutely terrifying.
The Competition: Fletcher’s competition were roles that had a little more kindness in them than hers did; Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H., Ann-Margret in Tommy, Glenda Jackson in Hedda, and Carol Kane in Hester Street.

The Role: McDormand plays the very-pregnant Police Chief Marge Gunderson, a determined woman who happens to be quite adept at detective work, too.
The Tears: While she certainly gets close in the ending scene (“I just don’t understand it”) after apprehending Gaear mid-feeding-Carl’s-foot-into-a-wood-chipper, McDormand doesn’t actually shed any tears over the duration of the film.
The Competition: McDormand beat out Diane Keaton as a leukemia patient in Marvin’s Room, Brenda Blethyn in Secrets & Lies, Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient, and Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves. (Criers galore this year – it’s safe to say that McDormand’s victory was something of a surprise!)